Zap2it lists two lineups for my zipcode, Insight Communications- Cable and Insight Communications- Digital. My Tivo S3 and S1 see only one lineup, the analog one.

I do not yet have CableCards installed. Does that supress the listing of digital lineups/channels? Should I see a digital lineup even though I don't have the CableCards installed yet? Will the digital channel listings suddenly appear after installing the CableCards?

I don't want to go to the trouble of installing (and paying for) CableCards if Tribune does not even have a digital lineup available for my zip. Do I need to deal with this before the cable tech comes?

I understand that the CableCards allow the guide/listings to find the correct channels. I just am not sure if I even have the listings.

I do not yet have CableCards installed. Does that supress the listing of digital lineups/channels? Should I see a digital lineup even though I don't have the CableCards installed yet? Will the digital channel listings suddenly appear after installing the CableCards?

Yes, you'll only see the "full" lineup of channels once you can actually receive them via CableCARD.

Comcast in New Haven seems to have it's stuff together. 2 cards in, both SA, both work. Tech brought 3 just in case, so I had a good feeling about the guy right then and there.
Kept my cable box and use it for VOD. I don't use it much but the HD stuff is cool, so I'll probably give it back when I get over the HD.

Comcast in Chicago (IL) area came out to hook up my 2 cable cards on Friday (they told me they do not do M cards). When the guy got here he told me "I hope you know what I am supposed to do, cause I have never done one of these cable cards before". I have a TiVoHD.

In our area, first cable card is free, second costs about $2 per month.

Well he brought 2 out with him and both reported as error code 161-1 (bad card) so he came out the next day with 5 cards (2 of them were M). He popped in the first card which was an M card and boom, we were in business. He swore that I needed a second card (which just did not jive with his statement the day before, but hey, he was there and I already agreed to pay the $26 for the installation. As soon as he popped in the 2nd M card, TiVo reported that M card was not needed in the 2nd slot, it could only handle single stream. It required an OK.

As soon as we hit 'Select', TiVo reported next reported that it could only handle 2 streams so the 2nd card "would be ignored, please remove". That about did it so, I did not have to pay anything for the multi-stream card (or we will see about that the first billing cycle, maybe $1.91/month) -- YEAH FOR ME!!

Since there is no communication path from the cablecards in the TiVo back to the cable system, I wonder how their end knows anything about the state of the cards? Unless it is actually instead talking about some sort of internal consistency check in their databases?

There is some sort of communication back. When I was on the phone with a CSR last night, after he sent a hit, he would tell me that one of my 4 cards did not respond to any commands. I could hear a beep in the background while I was on the phone. So, there is some acknowlegement going on.

Considering all the horror stories I have read about ordering CableCards, I was prepared for grief when I placed my order today.

I walked into my Insight office and ordered two CableCards. They will cost me less than $2.00 each and a $10 installation/activation charge. That is it.

If I understand things correctly, they will get me my Basic and Classic lineups (which I already subscribe to with analog service) with no additional charges.

Let's hope the installation goes smoothly on Tuesday.

Tuesday came and went with a smooth installation in my S3. Installer was here less than an hour and we managed to chit chat about other issues and topics. The only thing that was a little scary was that the install instructions from the Tivo box and the online sources did not exactly match all the screens and messages we got. We never did get a message about the 2nd card acquring channels. There was some confusion about hitting the first card, hanging up, installing the 2nd card, calling back and hitting it. The installer and the tech on the phone weren't quite sure if they could leave the 2nd part of the install open and pending or if they needed to close the work order. I am not sure how the did it, but it worked fine.

Finally got 2 paired and all is well. He had NEVER installed on a THD.

Glad to hear you are up and running.

I still hold to the theory that the CableCARDs aren't actually "bad" - it's just that they don't follow the instructions and wait for the TiVo to do its processing, and they yank the card out, or try and put two cards in at once, or any number of other things that they could avoid by simply following the one-page TiVo instructions.

But now, instead of realizing that it's their own fault, they have passed around the advice to each other that they need to bring a "handful" of cards, and when the first two are deemed "bad" because they didn't follow the directions, they somehow do the next two correctly and then deem that card to be "good."

It's not as if they have to attend a six-week course at their own expense to learn this - it's all on a single page of instructions.

I decided to take advantage of the recent lifetime subscription deal for existing customers. I thought I'd share my experience with Comcast trying to convince them to give me a cablecard

I only have limited basic cable and am paying $16 / month. My HDTV has a QAM tuner so I'm currently able to receive local channels in HD and a handful of other random channels in digital (cspan, CNN, jewlry shopping channel, comcast sports). But since Tivo HD does not have any QAM channel mapping, the only way to use the Tivo HD with season passes, guide, etc... is to get a CableCard.

So after receiving my TivoHD, I called Comcast and told them I would need a CableCard for my Tivo. The rep's first reaction was: "well you only have limited basic analog cable and not a digital package, so I can't give you a cablecard." This is clearly wrong, and I told him I knew for a fact that people are able to get CableCards without having any digital packages. He put me on hold while he checked with his supervisor and came back and said I was right. I then asked if I could do a self installation and pick up a cable card from a local office. He said this wasn't possible and they would have to send someone to install it for me. Since I've been reading that some Comcast areas have self-installation, I decided to give up on the phone and drop by my local comcast office to see if they had self install CableCards there.

At the local office (Santa Clara, CA), I asked the rep there if I could add a CableCard for it to go in a Tivo. She gave me the same spiel about not having a digital package so there would be an extra $3 charge per month for the CableCard. AND since it was for a Tivo, I would need to get a second CableCard for another $7.25 a month. So it would be an extra $10 a month for two freaking cable cards. What BULLS***!! She even contradicted herself at one point saying that the CableCards were only meant Comcast DVR's!

No matter what she tried, she wasn't able to play around with her computer to avoid those charges. I tried explaining that a second CableCard was not necessary since most cablecards today are mCards. She didn't even know what a mcard was. I also tried explaining that it says on the comcast website that the first cablecard is FREE! She countered by saying it was only free for people with the digital package. Whatever. I gave up and decided to try my luck over the phone again.

I called Comcast again. This time I simply said: "Hi, I just got an HDTV and I need a CableCard for it." I did not mention it was for a Tivo. This time, the lady said, "well I see that you only have the limited basic package... you realize that you won't be getting many HD channels right?... only local HD channels" I said "Yes, I know. Thats fine." She then asked how many CableCards I needed. I said: it depends if the card is an mCard or a sCard. She said it'd be an mCard. So I just ordered one. I asked if there would any additional monthly charges, she said nope, just a one time $13.99 installation fee. I said that's fine and went ahead with the order. It won't be until next week when the truck roll happens, but I'm hoping the service person will know how to handle a Tivo. I'm still a little worried about that because I neglected to mention it was for a Tivo.

Lessons learned:
* When attempting to get a CableCard from Comcast, don't mention Tivo. It seems like they go out of their way to find ways to charge you extra.
* It's hit or miss with the knowledge of the Comcast reps over the phone. If one is giving you trouble, just give up and try calling back to get another. The last rep I talked to didn't give me any trouble.
* The service rep at the local office in Santa Clara, CA is an idiot.

Has anyone had this trouble with limited basic + CableCard in the Bay Area? Is it required that Comcast know that the CableCard will be for a Tivo HD? I told them it was for a HDTV, but it shouldn't matter right?

This is what we have to do when these moronic companies simply will not train their people.

I've had to do the same sort of thing for 23 years when calling for information about cable and my many Macs. I just tell them that I have a PC. I even have a tape recording of a PC starting up to play for them when they tell me to "reboot." Meanwhile I smoke a cigar. This way I never have to hear the stupid morons parroting "We don't support Macs."

Sez me: Yes you do - you just don't know it.

So I think it's a great idea that once they have demonstrated to you that they know nothing about M-cards or TiVos, not even the simple fact that they are the same as for a TV, then you just tell them you have a TV, and when the guy comes, just tell him the rep must have mis-heard you.

Then hand him the TiVo installation instructions (one page) and make sure he follows it. Keep the remote yourself so you can make sure he doesn't bail out of the screens too early declaring the card "bad."

If he says the card is "bad" because he didn't follow the directions, ask him if he will let you keep it. Then you can "install" it yourself and call Comcast with the numbers.

Got FIOS installed yesterday. Tech was at my house from 9:30AM to 8:30PM. Last four hours or so were getting CCs installed and activated. He told me up front that this would be his first CC install, but otherwise, he was very informed and did a first-class job in installing internet and TV 'drops'. Very neat and clean. When we got to CC install, the first CC proved bad, but that was not established before getting caught in numerous 'endless loops' in the guided setup process while troubleshooting. Restarted three times before we tried the second CC in Slot 1 and it worked! Tech then called a colleague who dropped off two more CCs to my house. Got both installed, but tech needed POD-ID to activate remotely, but didn't know what that was. It took a call to Verizon FSC specialist to get both cards up and running. All seems OK. Getting all premium and HD channels. All is well with the world. Calling Comcast today to cancel internet service, and will be saying sayonara to D*TV after ten moderately happy years. Have one HR10-250 plus two Series 2 D*TiVos (one 70hr, one 140hr) and two Series 1 D*TiVos. Is there any market for these units?

Not sure if this is the correct place for this post, as it looks like everyone is talking about installation issues. My S3 has needed a reboot 2x this week to recapture the signal. This happens occasionally. I am concerned I might miss shows I want recorded. Why does this occur? Is there a fix, or do I just have to keep restarting? Sometimes, it just comes back after 5 or ten minutes. Rick

I bought my first series 3/HD a couple of months ago. When I called to order the Cablecards, the "Customer Service" drone told me that "Cablecards do not work with HD". After a little poking around on the web, I figured out that this was simply not true. It might seem kind of obvious, but looking on the TiVo site, to make sure that a HD/Cablecard works with HD was a bit of an exercise in frustration.

Finally, I figured it out on some discussion boards (they work just fine, save VOD), and called TWC back and scheduled an appointment. Installation was a breeze.

Last week I got another Series 3/HD and called for an install. The Moxi box that I am replacing is SLOW, noisy, and runs HOT. (I don't fault the Moxi software, the box is just completely underpowered and poorly designed).

Anyway, I had a sneaking suspicion when I made the appointment that something would go wrong. Call it "Cablecard paranoia", but I just think TWC thinks it's in their best interest to mess with Cablecard users.

First however, I was pleasantly surprised, when they offered me a time-window for the installation (something that has never happened to me in my Cable TV past). But it all went south from there.

My family was at home at the appointed hour, and once the window had open and closed, I called TWC. The CSR told me that the installer had been trying to contact me, except that my phone had not rung, there was no voicemail, my callerID log showed no calls, and I was within 10 feet of my front door for the entire time.

I told the CSR that I was at home, waiting for the call, and there was no problems with my phone line. I was told that the installer would be there shortly.

An hour later, I called back, and was told that the installer "could not contact me, and could not access my building". I was not happy. After waiting another 20 minutes to talk to a supervisor, I was offered $20 as recompense for my time and told that it was "too late to request a 'go back'", and that my install had to be rescheduled for another day.

My question is this... does anyone else out there have similar stories? Am I just being paranoid, or does requesting a Cablecard automatically trip some kind of corporate "dirty tricks". I know that the Telco's did a pretty good job screwing independent DSL service providers by delivering such a low level of support that many customers just blamed the service provider and found Broadband in other ways.

After 4 weeks and 4 technician visits, I finally have a working M-Card in my TiVo HD DVR.
All previous techs (3rd party service companies) had brought S-Cards (although the work order specified M-Card) that were either not working properly, or the tech didn't know how to set them up with TiVo (or the TW tech at the call center didn't know).
I kept getting conflicting responses from TW customer service: some were saying M-Cards were not available, others were saying they had received them. The 3rd party techs had never heard about M-Cards.
In the end, it took a supervisor 1 hour to set it up (some HD channels were missing).

I see a lot of posts regarding do-it-yourself cable card installs, cards not working....etc.

I work for a cable company. I was able to do my own cable card installs only because I work here. Actually my husband did our S3 unit and I did my Mothers S3 unit. The techs have to call into our diapatch or Network operations department to read off numbers etc.... The general public does not have access to the departments that the techs call into. There are a lot of behind the scene changes going on to your account in order to get the cards to work properly.

We use Motorola cards, and for some reason, we have a lot of problems with them. I think it's a similar situation for most cable cards/companies.

I think I am the only person in my call center that owns Tivo units. It is not a component that there is training for, but you should never hear that the cable cards won't work in a Tivo.

When we schedule an appointment for the cards, we have 1 person who will do the scheduling. She will ask what kind of TV the cards will be installed into. So I don't know that avoiding saying what it's for will help unless other cable companies don't bother asking this.

It's a fairly new technology and when Tivo released the HD & S3 boxes, we were bombarded with calls for the cards. More and more techs are learning to install them, where as before, there were only a few techs that were trained to do it.

I am hoping that there will be some sort of training on this so reps have a basic knowledge of Tivo. I have suggested this several times. Even just connecting the Tivo infared receivers to the cable box is something none of the reps can do to help a customer with Tivo.

I am hoping that there will be some sort of training on this so reps have a basic knowledge of Tivo. I have suggested this several times.

It is a SINGLE PAGE that comes with the TiVo. I wouldn't even call it "training." If the installer techs would just lose the attitude and READ THE SINGLE PAGE AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS, then they would not make the stupid mistakes they make. Oh, and bring the card that was requested. Don't show up not knowing what you are there for - read the work order. If the work order is blank, call in before going to the house so that you appear to know what you are doing when you greet the customer. The information about which customer it is and what time the appointment is, is given at the exact same time that the purpose of the call is given, so it makes absolutely no sense that the address would be on the work order and the reason for the visit would not be. But somehow they manage to do this.

Quote:

Even just connecting the Tivo infared receivers to the cable box is something none of the reps can do to help a customer with Tivo.

They should not have to do that. That is a TiVo installation issue.

With everything computerized these days, the fact that somebody has to call somebody else on a phone and read them numbers that they type into a computer just boggles the mind.

Why not give the installers a laptop, and access to the customer database through the cable so they can just configure the cards themselves?